“Scrub mussels in spring water. Dump them into boiling water with salt. Boil five minutes. Remove and cool in the juice. Take out meat. Eat by dipping in acorn paste flavored with a smudge of garlic, and green apples.”

-Jean Craighead George, My Side of the Mountain

rec·i·pe

/ˈresəˌpē/

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noun

plural noun: recipes

1. a set of instructions for preparing a particular dish, including a list of the ingredients required.
   "a traditional Indonesian recipe"

2. Similar:

3. cooking directions

4. receipt

   • something which is likely to lead to a particular outcome.
     "sky-high interest rates are a recipe for disaster"

   • Similar:

   • means/way of achieving

   • means/way of ensuring

   • prescription

   • formula

   • method

If you were living alone in the forest, what would you suppose a recipe for frog soup might include? Many of us may never have the opportunity to answer this type of question, but Sam sure did! His recipe for the best frog soup includes wild onions, carrots, and acorn flour all served up in a turtle shell bowl.

If you have no other choices, you can extract salt from some plants. Boiling pieces of walnut, hickory, and pecan roots extracts nutrients like sodium from the plant.

1. Dig up and rinse hickory, dandelion, walnut, or pecan roots. Since plants absorb nutrients through their roots, they all tend to have some salt here. But these plants in particular store salt in their roots. Look for one or more of these plant types and use them to extract salt. Rinse them off to remove any dirt before you boil them.

2. Cut the roots up into pieces 1 inch (2.5 cm) long. Use a knife or similar cutting tool to slice up the roots. They don’t have to be diced completely, but cut them into sections of 1 inch (2.5 cm) in length

3. Boil the roots in water to draw out the nutrients. Cover the bottom of a pan or pot with 1 inch (2.5 cm) of water and place it over a fire. Then add the root pieces. Let the water sit until it boils.

4. Remove the roots when the water starts turning black. As the nutrients come out of the roots, the water changes color. When it turns dark brown or black, then all of the nutrients have been extracted. Use a long spoon to remove all the root pieces

5. Continue boiling until all the water evaporates. Keep the pot over the fire and let the water continue boiling. Leave it undisturbed until all the water evaporates

6. Use the black substance left over as a salt substitute. When the water evaporates, a black tar-like substance is left behind. This is the extracted nutrients, including the salt. Use this as a salt replacement to get your necessary sodium serving. Sprinkle it on your food or eat it plain, if you prefer

1. Collect coltsfoot leaves.

2. Lay them out flat to dry in the sun or roll them into balls and place them near a fire.

3. Most sources I found say that the leaves were dried and then bundled in some manner before being burned on a flat rock.

4. It’s tricky finding a way to burn the coltsfoot where it continuously stays lit but also doesn’t lose the ash as you fan the flames.

DIRECTIONS

• Pick dandelion flowers during the daylight while in full bloom, remove petals, then measure petals only; discard the green stem parts.

• Place petals in a heavy saucepan along with the water, lemon slices, and vanilla bean.

• Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let steep for 6 hours.

• Strain dandelion tea through cheesecloth and discard solids.

• Place remaining liquid in a heavy saucepan and bring to a low boil. Gradually add sugar while stirring until sugar is dissolved. Lower heat and let simmer to desired syrupy thickness (may take up to 4 hours).

• Pour into jars and enjoy.

You can find dandelions off and on all summer, but the violet flowers are a one-time deal. The most magical thing about this jelly is the color. It glows with an amethyst purple that is almost prettier than the flower itself. And it makes a nice science demonstration.

When you pour the boiling water over the petals, the liquid turns a dark sapphire blue. When you add the lemon juice, the citric acid reacts to the cyan-compounds and lowers the pH, turning it right back to purple! It’s pretty neat. The flavor is very mild. It’s mostly just sweet.

-Make your violet tea as soon as you can after picking, while the petals are still nice and fresh. A few hours is fine.

-Liquid pectin and powdered pectin behave differently. This calls for liquid pectin. Secure this ahead of picking... not everyone stocks it so check your store.

-Use the deepest pot you have because boiling jelly is no joke. It boils up very high and can be a real menace if it overflows.

Spruce tips taste like a cross between rosemary and hops (the bitter taste you find in India Pale Ales/IPAs) although some will find the flavor that comes from the resin inside the tips to be harsh. You can soften their flavor by picking the smallest tips, soaking them in water for a few hours or transforming them into quick pickles where they take on a caper-like taste.

Instructions

1. Place the first 6 ingredients (everything BUT the spruce tips) in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.

2. While the brine is heating, clean the spruce tips in a large bowl by rinsing in cold water.

3. Pack the spruce tips in a mason jar.

4. Once the brine reaches a boil, carefully pour into mason jar.

5. Leave jar to cool on counter stirring 3 or 4 times in the first few minutes to ensure all spruce tips are submerged in the hot brine.

6. Once cool cover with a lid. Will store in a cool dark place for months or indefinitely in the fridge (if it goes moldy you will know it has spoiled - otherwise this should be fine to eat).

Process your acorns. More information on this on page "Protein-type Sustenance" on how this is done.

Directions

Preheat griddle to medium heat.

1. Combine dry ingredients in whatever large bowl you like. One with a spout is most welcome.

2. Combine oil, honey, eggs, and milk until smooth in consistency.

3. Combine the wet with the dry ingredients into the large bowl.

4. Adjust by adding more milk if the batter appears too thick, more flour if too thin. The nature of all acorn meal is not equal. The batter should be thin enough to pour, but not runny, as one might imagine.

5. Drop an experimental dollop of batter onto griddle. Adjust heat accordingly.

6. Griddle dollar-sized pancakes until the bottoms are browned and the top side bubbles for about three minutes. Flip and cook until cakes are barely firm to the touch.

7. Remove pancakes to a warm plate. I hold mine in a warm oven covered with a towel until all the pancakes have been made.

8. Serve hot

This is super important. You’re looking for a very specific stage of growth here: about the size of a grown adults pinky nail. Any larger and the cones will be a bit too strong for my taste and they should be cut in half, which also means they’ll be slightly desiccated by the preservation and not as picturesque as you see here. You want small young pine cones so young enough that they give between your fingers when pressed.

Instructions

1. Rinse the pine cones to remove any debris.

2. Bring a few cups of water to a boil and blanch the pine cones for 1-2 minutes, remove and reserve.

3. In a 1 gallon pot with high sides about 8-10 inches in diameter, combine the cider, bouquet of warm spices, pinch of salt, and pine cones, bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and set a timer for 1 hour while you do something else.

4. After an hour, check on the reduction and gauge how much time it will take to reduce down to about 1.5 cups or so, at which point you should baby it, watching it carefully to make sure the consistency is to your liking.

5. Continue reducing at a brisk simmer until the bubbles start to increase in size and threaten to creep up the sides of the pan. Referring to the video will be helpful here.

6. When the bubbles are large and the mixture is reduced to the consistency of warm honey, transfer the cones and their syrup to a jar, allow to cool uncovered for 30 minutes, then put a jar with a tight-fitting lid like a mason jar and refrigerate.

7. Once chilled, inspect the thickness of your jam. If it seems too thick/100 percent pine cones, transfer to a bowl, warm it over a pot of simmering water and thin it with a splash 1T of cider, mix well, then put back in the jar and refrigerate again, which will refresh the consistency.

8. Kept in the fridge with the lid screwed on tight it will last for a couple months.